SOCHI, Russia — The debate about the NHL’s Olympic participation and finding consensus among team owners, players and international hockey officials flared again Tuesday with league commissioner Gary Bettman remaining noncommittal about returning in 2018 to South Korea.

Negotiations are expected to accelerate during the next six months among the league, the NHL Players Association and International Ice Hockey Federation.

“I don’t see why it couldn’t be done in that time frame,” Bettman said during a joint news conference with union executive director Donald Fehr and IIHF president Rene Fasel.

“It’s about what makes sense to the International Organizing Committee, to the IIHF, to the NHLPA and to the NHL. Just as Don has to figure out and hear from the players, I have to do the same things with the clubs and the owners.”

Advertisement

The tournament always has been universally loved by participating players. Team USA, which is undefeated and playing well entering its quarterfinal Wednesday against the Czech Republic or Slovakia, is relishing its trip abroad.

“It’s the Olympics. It’s irreplaceable I think,” said U.S. center David Backes, of Minneapolis. “The impact of the games, being in a little bubble over here, is tough to maybe quantify. But the facts are the facts. Finding a way to make it work gives it great exposure. The guys absolutely love playing in the games. Hopefully it’s something guys in other generations have opportunities to play in.”

NHL players have competed in the Olympics since 1998. The league has shut down every four years for three weeks while their greatest players — less than a third of total rosters — have traveled to far-flung destinations such as Japan, Italy and Russia, with less demanding stops in Salt Lake City and Vancouver.

One would be hard-pressed to find a business model that encourages shuttering arenas, concession stands and ceasing to operate for almost a month in the middle of a season. There also is the risk of player injuries. Detroit Red Wings star Henrik Zetterberg’s season is in jeopardy after he re-aggravated a back injury playing for Sweden.

But there is no debating the superior hockey product presented to the world every Olympics. The sport’s most talented players compete for the highest stakes in a tournament which generates pure drama for a wider audience.

T.J. Oshie’s shootout heroics in Team USA’s nerve-tingling victory over Russia Saturday made him an overnight media sensation, something he is unlikely to experience playing 82 games per season with the St. Louis Blues.

“I think from the Twitter world and the way Game 2 against Russia went, and the magnitude and the scope that it was seen, it’s not just a regional thing,” said Backes. “This is a worldwide game everyone’s watching and I think (the Olympics are) growing it immensely and that’s what we’re looking for in the game.”

Players are not paid during the Olympics and are housed in the athlete’s village so cost is nonexistent. Still, it is not a slam dunk getting 30 owners to coalesce around the notion of providing free entertainment for the world.

“We have made it very clear that the decision that has to be made is a balancing act,” Bettman said. “It’s not all good. It’s not all bad. It has to be balance.”

Fehr said the Players Association would discuss the 2018 Olympics at its annual July meeting and resolve the issue with “all deliberate speed.”

“But in a democratic organization, you have to do it at a rate that the players are prepared to do it,” Fehr said.

U.S. captain Zach Parise, a two-time Olympian, said fatigue factors into compressed cross-continental travel. The gold medal game is Sunday. The NHL season resumes Tuesday. But there is no denying the benefit to playing high-pressure games.

“From a playing standpoint, you almost go back and feel like you’ve got a lot of confidence in your game individually,” Parise said.

Fasel quipped it would be “boring” to hammer out a 10- or 20-year Olympic agreement, adding “it’s so nice to be with Gary and fight and have some discussions.”

Then the two powerful hockey executives sparred about the greatest hockey achievement.

“There is nothing like an Olympic gold medal, in the life of an athlete — nothing,” said Fasel.

“Except, perhaps, winning the Stanley Cup,” Bettman countered.

Fasel had the last word.

“The Olympic gold medal, you cannot replace. Stanley Cup? World champion? Yeah, yeah. Every year there is a Stanley Cup, every year world champion,” Fasel said. “Look at the faces of the players next Sunday when they get their gold medal. So different.”

Leading the Americans into the medal round U.S. coach Dan Bylsma has a unique perspective. He also is the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who lead the Eastern Conference with 83 points. The Penguins have seven Olympians competing on four different teams.

“The best players from every part of the world playing for their country, I think it’s great,” Bylsma said. “Does it make my schedule in the NHL a little bit worse? Yeah, it does. Do I wonder about a guy like Zetterberg who now got hurt? Yeah, you worry about those things.

“But I see Game 2 against the Russia. The best players in the world going at it. I love the fact they get to come together at the Olympic Games.”